Son of Osiris
by pottermalfoy24
Summary: X-over with Stargate SG-1. Two years after graduation, Harry goes to Egypt to learn about ancient wizards curses. He find something rather unexpected and Harry finds himself sharing his head with someone else.
1. In the Beginning

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling, Bloomsbury and Scholastic. Stargate SG-1 belongs to MGM and The Scifi Channel. No copyright infringement is intended and no money has changed hands. _

A/N: While some things are accurate in this story, such as the time period in Ancient Egypt, there is not such entity as Meneris in Egyptian mythology. I made him up. I've been working on a way to make this for a while, mostly because I didn't want to change the time-frames. The first episode of SG-1 was run in 1997, which is, of course, Harry's seventh year. So, this is two years after graduation, Season 3 SG-1, and I have to make sure I don't deal with the Osiris issue too much because that didn't happen until Season 4. However, the mess with Seth **has** happened, so the issue isn't completely out of the blue. I'm watching my transcripts carefully, I promise. If I make a mistake, tell me. (Not that my evil muse won't do that. >:D ) Voldemort is still around, but you won't see him for a while. 

Enjoy!

* * *

**Son of Osiris**

In The Beginning...

_Egypt, Thebes, ca 1206 B.C., reign of Merneptah..._

Fhadentep, the Pharaoh's chief magician, let fly through his staff with a violent sedation curse designed for a creature that he should never have had to cast it on, a sun-bird by the name of Khafre. Sun-birds were sacred as even cats were not, but this individual was not alone. He had been possessed by the demonic son of Isis and Osiris, Meneris. When they had been banished, he had escaped their fate by leaving his body and taking that of Khafre. 

In the time since that possession, a total of more than a thousand years, he had been the bane of the Pharaohs, the last reminder of their predecessors, the false gods, the Goa'uld. The name of their race was not spoken outside the priesthood and the magicians' circle. They had not wanted the demons remembered to the average population of Egypt, and Meneris threatened that silence at least once a decade. This time, though, the possessed sun-bird had been anticipated. Ancient spells had ensnared him within the walls of the temple at Thebes and now, with the help of new spells and new potions and the mercy of Ra, the sacred bird would be freed of the demon within it. 

The curse struck Meneris head on. He tried to eat the curse, following the instincts of his host, but the curse had been designed with that in mind. It could only act from the _inside_ of the victim, and only a sun-bird would swallow a curse. The demon realized his mistake too late, his eyes flashing bright with his anger and a strangely resonant screech issued from his throat. Then he fell out of the air, cushioned by the pillows that littered the floor of the temple for that purpose. The point of the whole thing was to free Khafre, not to kill the host with the demon. 

Knowing that against the magic of the sun-bird the curse wouldn't last long, he quickly withdrew the potion from his belt pouch, gently prying the jaws of the bird open and pouring the silver liquid down his throat, massaging the outside of it to ensure that he didn't choke. The potion was not poison, even for the Goa'uld, but a false-poison that would, while in an unconscious state, trigger the jump reflex. The symbiote's system thought that the host was dead, so it would automatically escape that fate by trying to jump into the nearest available host. 

That was Fhadentep. But the magician had excellent reflexes and coordination. He caught the eel-like creature the moment it leapt to within his reach and made to dash its head against the stone walls. 

At that moment, Khafre stood weakly and made a quiet chirp to gain Fhadentep's attention. The magician looked at the sun-bird, who shook his head in a negative. Fhadentep frowned. "You do not wish me to kill him? But--" 

Khafre shook his head and sung loudly and clearly, his magical voice reverberating through the empty hall. The Goa'uld instantly went limp. Then the bird shook himself all over, shaking off his remaining lethargy and took flight, hovering in front of Fhadentep for a moment before taking the parasite in one of his claws. He flew to a certain place in the stone wall that was marked with a hieroglyph of a sun-bird and touched it with his empty claw. 

The stone separated from the wall and revealed a small gold-lined chamber. Khafre through the Goa'uld inside and the chamber sealed. As the stone replaced itself into the wall, the hieroglyphs on the outside of it glowed with the pure light of the sun-bird's magic. When the light receded, there was new writing on the wall, a curse. _Here lies a living darkness, not a dead shell. Only in the darkest of days will this bring light to the world, and only the brightest light in this world may wield it without harm. Any other will surely perish, and be unable to pass on, forced to witness the darkness that their shell will bring upon the earth. Be warned, lest you bring about the end of all you hold dear._

The curse completed, the sun-bird came to a rest on the floor and let his inner light burn him up, becoming nothing more than a pile of ashes. Fhadentep knew the way of the sun-birds, though, and did not despair, but knelt next to the ashes, waiting. And within a couple of moments, the infant chick poked his head out of the ash, purified by his own fire of the remaining potion. 

From that day until the human passed away, Khafre stayed with Fhadentep through all the upheaval that swallowed the Empire for a time, through his good times and through his bad. Always with him was a sadness that nothing ever assuaged, as well as the taint of the Goa'uld that not even the sun's fire could cleanse from him. And he continued on with his eternal life, through centuries and millennia, until he finally settled on the shoulder of a young man with lengthening red hair in a land far from his native Egypt. The young man grew to become a wise leader and to defeat a great evil. And then the man grew older and taught in a great school. 

Later, a new evil arose, and Khafre's young man fought this one as well, but the evil was not defeated completely. Though the world celebrated, the sun-bird knew. This was far from over. Khafre, now called a phoenix, and called Fawkes by his young man, Albus Dumbledore, knew that the time of the darkness he had foreseen was coming quickly. And he knew that very soon there would be no choice but to allow Meneris to awaken. _"...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not..."_ Meneris would help the boy, and the boy would be strong enough to withstand Meneris. 

Time moved slowly as ever, but even a snail will eventually reach his destination. The boy was now a man, and the darkness was at hand, and destiny was reaching out with cold, unfeeling hands to take Harry Potter by the scruff. Time had run out.

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_That's Chapter 1. The next one will be back into the present. Tell me what you think! _


	2. Curiosity

_Disclaimer: See Chapter 1. _

A/N: Wow! 23 reviews and one little shit for the first chapter! Thanks to everyone who was nice. To the other guy, get over yourself, baby, and learn how to spell. 

Well, on with the show.

* * *

Dr. Daniel Jackson had entrenched himself inside a small ancient temple in Thebes, trying to find a clarifying reference that would make sense of the story on its walls. He'd never seen a reference to this son of Osiris and Isis anywhere else, and he wondered if it was because that Goa'uld had been left on Earth, as Seth had been. Meneris had no presence throughout history like Seth, but neither was there any Tok'ra record of him. It was possible that he was simply an invention of the historians, but that was rather unlikely given the fact that every deity in the Egyptian pantheon had so far been either a System Lord or one of their descendants. 

The story went that Meneris had abandoned his human form and taken that of Ra's pet bird, a phoenix. The bird was also called Khafre, and Daniel thought that was probably the host's name. Being immortal, the bird was a stronger form for Meneris, and he made a nuisance of himself for a thousand years after Ra "left Egypt in the hands of his son, Horus," Horus being the first Pharaoh. In other words, after the Goa'uld were kicked off Earth in the uprising. 

Finally, a magician named Fhadentep made a pact with the phoenix, who then gave up his role as a god and aided the magician and his family for the rest of the man's life. There was no mention of what happened to Khafre after Fhadentep's death. 

To Daniel, it sounded as though the Goa'uld had somehow been forced from the body of its host without killing it. Daniel desperately wanted to know how that had been done, and he'd convinced General Hammond to give him the time to study the temple for any hint of where to begin. If someone in ancient Egypt had really removed the symbiote without harming the host, and if they'd left notes on how it had been done, then that was something that the SGC needed to know about. It would certainly make Stargate explorations safer, and it offered Daniel hope that he would one day be able to liberate Sha're from Amonet. 

"Hello?" Daniel was so focused on the walls of the temple that he didn't notice the pair of men who came in behind him. So when the British voice issued from behind him he nearly jumped out of his skin. "Whoa, there, Danny. Had a bit too much of that Yank coffee?" 

Daniel grinned, recognizing the voice. "You'd know all about that, wouldn't you, Bill." He stood from where he'd been crouched against the carvings on the wall to shake his old friend's hand. 

Bill Weasley was a tall, red-headed man with a wolf-fang earring nestled in one ear and his titan locks gathered into a tail at the nape of his neck. Back when Daniel had still been a working archaeologist, Bill had been doing some graduate work on Egyptian mythology, and he'd been a fairly constant presence around the various digs. A lot of diggers swore he was a good luck charm, as no one ever had a cave in or other such mishap when he was around. He tended to make fun of Daniel's addiction to coffee, for which he was well known. He grinned at Daniel. "When did you get back into Egypt? Last I heard you'd left to promote your work." 

The linguist smiled ruefully. "That didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, I'm afraid. I've been using my language skills on behalf of the US government. Pays the bills with plenty to spare, and I still get to indulge in my 'hobby'." 

"Sounds boring." 

"Anything but. but it's kind of -- um -- sensitive." 

Bill held up a hand. "Say no more. None of my business. Can't help but be nosy, you know me. I got that from my Dad." 

"Thanks, Bill. So, who's your young friend?" Daniel indicated the dark-haired, bespectacled youth beside him. The round glasses hid intelligent green eyes that betrayed a bit of nervousness and little else. 

"Oh, sorry! Daniel, this is Harry Potter. Harry, Dr. Daniel Jackson. Harry's got something of an interest in the more obscure parts of Egyptian mythology." 

Harry shrugged and spoke for the first time. "I like a good mystery." 

"Well, this is the place for you then. You two want to help me with this little puzzle? I've never found or heard of anything like it in all of Egyptian antiquity. It's about a god named Meneris." He went over the story with the two Brits, leaving out his own speculation about the Goa'uld, of course. "I'm looking for any other mentions of him in the temple. It's a small building, but I've only covered these two walls so far. I hope to assemble as complete a recording of this story as I can." 

Harry and Bill looked at each other, then back at Daniel. Bill said, "We'll help."

* * *

Three hours later, all three men were hot and tired, and Harry was seriously wishing that he dared to use a cooling charm in front of the Muggle archeologist. Still, the man was obviously a genius in his field, and he had already pointed out three other avenues that Harry wanted to check out later. 

The wizards of ancient Egypt had been just as brilliant as the architects and physicians. Wards and curses existed from those times that not even the strongest wizards could break, even three to five thousand years after they'd been cast. The famous curse of Tutankhamun's tomb had been a rather minor one, actually, but the curse beakers from Gringott's missed it because of the Boy King's previous obscurity. There were far stronger and deadlier spells hidden in the sands. 

That was why Harry and Bill were here. This was a research trip, and they hoped to find a book or some papyrus scrolls that detailed some of these ancient magical works. The hope was to put them on key buildings, such as Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic, to protect them from Death Eaters. Voldemort had nearly gathered all the strength he needed for his army and Harry wanted to hide every Muggle-born, wizard and squib under the age of seventeen in Great Britain in the vast network of tunnels that connected to the Chamber of Secrets, then ward it so strongly that all of Voldemort's armies wouldn't be able to breach it. Egypt held the only hope for finding wards that strong. 

The heat was sapping Harry's energy. He leaned against one of the temple walls for a moment to rest. He brushed the hair and sweat out of his eyes, briefly revealing his curse scar. 

Daniel, who was also taking a brief break, tossed Harry a water bottle out of his cooler. It was ice cold, and he gratefully pressed the plastic against his forehead, then the back of his neck, before opening it and taking a heaven-sent drink. The linguist handed one to Bill as well and took one for himself before closing the cooler and preserving the ice inside. 

Daniel took a drink, then asked, "How'd you get that scar, if it's not too personal?" 

Harry shrugged. "I got it when my parents were killed. I was only a baby, so I don't remember that well." It was half true, anyway. He didn't remember unless the Dementors were around, but that was on purpose. He didn't want to remember that night, so he'd shoved it behind an Occulmensy wall that hid it even from himself. 

Daniel flinched. "Sorry. Jack always says I'm too nosy for my own damned good." 

Harry smiled a little. "I'd imagine it comes with the territory, being an archaeologist." 

Daniel grinned. "Yeah, pretty much." 

The three men continued to work until the setting sun allowed the desert to start cooling. They probably would have continued, but a man in a black tee-shirt and blue jeans came in looking for Daniel. "Hey Danny!" 

Absently the scientist answered, "Yeah, Jack," never once taking his eyes from the wall in front of him. 

"Were you and your friends planning on eating today, or should Sam and Murray come help me lock you in with the rest of the mummies?" 

"Yeah, Jack, sure." 

Harry wasn't nearly so intent on his studies and burst out laughing. Bill just grinned, and Jack shook his head at Daniel, who had looked up at Harry's laughter. "Come on, Indy. Chow's on." 

Daniel grinned sheepishly. "I did the zone out thing, didn't I." 

Bill cheerfully said, "Yep! Totally gone." 

"You know, you don't have to agree with me so readily, Weasley." Daniel stood up straight with some difficulty and stretched his abused limbs and back. "Do you guys have any where in particular to eat?" 

Harry answered, "Yeah. My girlfriend, Ginny, is waiting for us back at our campsite. She'll be pissed if we don't go back there, but maybe tomorrow we can all get together? This place is really fascinating." 

Jack said, "Ginny. Average height, hazel eyes, hair 'bout as red as this guy's?" indicating Bill. Harry agreed, wondering what was going on. "Sam already invited her over to our camp for the evening. She said, and I quote, 'I'm tired of only having testosterone for company.'" 

Harry grinned. The youngest Weasley was more than used to having only males for company, having grown up with six elder brothers, so given the chance at having a female buffer, she was taking it enthusiastically. 

Bill chuckled. "That's my little sis. Poor girl. And poor Harry! After all, having grown up with us six boys, she knew exactly how to trap a man in his own mind." 

They left the temple and took Jack up on his offer to drive them over in his Jeep rather than walk through the increasingly cold desert to the camp. Daniel and Bill got into a discussion about the relevance of Meneris to the Egyptian pantheon. Harry thought about how the son of Osiris seemed to be a threat when refered to as Meneris, but as a friend or maybe even victim when called Khafre. Was this dichotomy a result of his personality change or were there truly two phoenixes rather than only one? 

Harry knew that he would need to examine that wall again tomorrow. He had sensed the presence of ancient magic permeating through a small section. He suspected that the wall was hiding something of great importance, though what that could be, he had no clue. There was a strange curse written in that section, and he wanted to talk to Bill before doing anything about it. He had copied the symbols down perfectly and decided he would get Daniel to help him translate it. He knew it to be a curse of some kind, just by the feel of the magic around it, but he couldn't read the hieratic very well. All he got was something about darkness and warning. 

Ginny and a short-haired blonde woman were laughing about something, sitting next to a campfire. A large black man stood next to another Jeep and was unloading something from the back of it. Jack pulled up beside the other Jeep and cut the engine. Harry jumped out and walked over to Ginny, putting a quick peck on her forehead. She smiled up at him and said, "Hi. I see you and the guys have met?" 

"Yeah. Daniel was working in the same temple that we were." He set down beside her and grinned. "So, what was so funny?" 

Ginny blushed. "Oh, nothing. Harry, this is Samantha Carter. Sam, Harry Potter." 

Harry shook the woman's hand. "Pleased to meet you. Any chance I can get the topic of conversation from you? By Gin's reaction, I'm betting it's a good one." 

"Beyond 'relationships', it's classified to anyone with a Y chromosome." 

Daniel chuckled. "Forget it, Harry. She's the most stubborn woman I know. That and she was trained not to reveal information under torture." 

Harry pouted a little, but then he returned the grin. "Yeah, but Gin's not." And with that he pounced on his girlfriend and started tickling her sensitive waist. 

They passed the evening in conversation, both groups having secrets that had to be kept from the others, but being able to easily avoid those areas. Basically they stuck to Bill and Daniel's history in Egypt and the puzzle of the little temple they were trying to solve. Harry said, "I managed to copy this tile, but I'm not nearly as good at translating the hieratic as I am the hieroglyphs and I thought you should give it a crack." Then he handed it to Daniel. 

The archaeologist could read Egyptian hieratic as easily as English. "Yeah." He quickly scanned the diligent copy Harry had made. Suddenly his eyes widened, the blood drained from his face and a flash of fear dancing across his face. "Shit." 

Harry frowned. "What is it?" 

He looked up as if he had forgotten that anyone else was there. He looked at Jack, then just decided to go with it. The two Britons couldn't know what it meant. "'Here lies a living darkness, not a dead shell. Only in the darkest of days will this bring light to the world, and only the brightest light in this world may wield it without harm. Any other will surely perish, and be unable to pass on, forced to witness the darkness that their shell will bring upon the earth. Be warned, lest you bring about the end of all you hold dear.'" 

Harry blinked. That wasn't a curse. It was a warning, a prophesy. The "darkest days" might very well refer to the present, though, with Voldemort a very real threat. But then, where was this "brightest light"? 

So intent on those thoughts was Harry that he didn't notice the look on the other three Americans' faces. But Bill did. Their faces had hardened in a very familiar way, like Aurors who had learned of a particularly nasty Death Eater raid, scared and determined not to let it pass unchallenged. "Okay, so what's scary about a seven thousand year old inscription to three trained military personnel and one archeologist?" 

Daniel shook his head. "We can't tell you. The stuff I work on is so classified that you almost have to get written authorization to visit the head. I can tell you that this just got a hell of a lot more interesting, though. And dangerous." 

Jack said, "I don't think it's a good idea for anyone to go back in there until we can get some safety equipment in here." 

"All right. Is it dangerous as it stands?" Bill didn't want to jeopardize any lives, but they needed the research they were working on. Lives back home depended on it. 

Daniel shook his head. "No. As long as we stay away from that tile, we'll be perfectly safe in there. But watch your step and where you put your hands. You know how fond some of these builders were of traps. Not as bad as the South American builders, but close." 

Bill and Harry both agreed to be cautious and to avoid the tile when they went back the next morning, but nothing was said about tonight, as the Americans assumed everyone would be asleep.

* * *

The darkness was still as Harry crept back to the temple, something in the back of his mind egging him on to reexamine the cryptic message that had been left behind by the ancient wizard who had built the place. The whole structure was designed to contain something, and if that something was a weapon, then hopefully it could be used against Voldemort. 

He looked carefully at the tile, scanning it to find any curses that might be protecting it. There were three of them, neither alone very difficult to break, but together more than enough to kill anyone who tried to break in. Daniel hadn't known how right he was about Egyptian builders. Often the wizards and the priests would work together and rig multiple traps that worked both on mechanism and magic. The intricacies were brilliant, and they made some Egyptian tombs among the hardest safes to crack in all the world. But this one held only magical protections, and they were things which Harry could deal without needing Bill's help. 

He dismantled the first two curses, but frowned before tackling the third. It had a very distinct magical signature on it, one he had met before. What in the world did Fawkes have to do with this? He hesitated, not really wanting to loose whatever the phoenix was so determined to keep hidden, but knowing that they needed any advantage in this war they could get. 

With a silent apology to the bird, he slid his magic into the lattice-work of the curse and snapped it like so many twigs. The tile glowed brightly as the magic dissipated, then fell to the floor, leaving open a tiny chamber in the wall. 

_"Lumos."_ The temple was brightened with the light of his wand, but only for a moment as something leapt out of the compartment at Harry's face. He dropped his wand at the pain that radiated from the base of his skull and screamed. Then he passed out.

* * *

_Aren't I evil, leaving this here? Well, now that I've proven I'm not dead, I'll explain my long absence. I got married, and anyone who's ever had to plan a wedding knows just how hectic that can get. I've never forgotten my work, but now I'm trying to catch up on ALL of it at once, and it's proving a daunting challenge. Oz should be the next update, followed by the first chapter of AAB: The Heir of Slytherin. Reviews are welcome, as always! _


	3. And the Bird?

_Disclaimer: See Chapter 1. _

_A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed and has continued to review. Most of the notes are at the bottom, but I really wanted to say thanks._

* * *

**Son of Osiris**

...And the Bird?

Bill and Ginny were frantic when they couldn't find Harry the next morning. They enlisted the help of the military people to search for him, but Daniel had the right idea. "The temple. Would he have gone back there last night?"

The Weasleys were red heads, and both had the characteristic fair skin that came so often with that color. But when they both paled visibly, it didn't take more than a moment for everyone to head for the structure that filled the Americans with such dread. SG-1 was worried that he might have been infested by the Goa'uld that the temple seemed to be claiming as its only occupant. Daniel was worried about physical traps. Bill was worried about magical ones. And Ginny was worried about ten thousand things at once, but couldn't have pinned one down and told it to anyone if she'd tried.

If Bill was surprised when the military personnel got their guns out, or that Daniel had one as well, he hid it. Something strange was going on here, and Harry was either in danger or he was bloody well about to be in deep shite.

They found him on the ground, unconscious. Ginny would have gone to him, but Bill held her back. Every instinct he had developed to do his job as a curse breaker was on high alert the moment they walked into the temple. "Stop, Gin. Something's been set off."

Daniel looked at him. "What is it?"

Bill glanced at the Muggles, but made his decision quickly. "Magic. Harry broke the curses that were protecting that tile. And something's very wrong in there." Daniel would have asked, but Bill said, "No time. I realize we both have secrets to keep, but every fiber of my being is vibrating right now with the sense that something very bad just happened. I know I'm not cleared for this, but I need you four to be straight with me."

Jack shook his head. "I swear, Danny. You can't even go on vacation!"

Sam said, "What kind of magic?"

"Let's just say that the curse on Tut's tomb was weak because the guy performing it didn't really like the kid." Daniel hissed at the implications of that. "This was meant to keep people out, but it didn't really seem to be dangerous. Whatever was behind it, though, is giving me some severe willies." He turned back to Harry. _What have you gotten yourself into, kid?_

Daniel wanted to ask Bill a thousand and one questions, but they were all secondary. "I'm telling him, Jack. He's got information and we need to know just what the hell is going on here."

Jack hesitated, but nodded. "Okay. Just remember, this is all classified. You two can't tell anyone about it. You could get in real trouble, and so could we."

Daniel said, "Okay, quick version. Ra and the other Egyptian gods were alien parasites who posed as the actual deities in ancient times. I was searching here because the story sounds like Fhadentep managed to remove the thing without harming the host, which is something we can't do with all our technology. The warning on the tile said that they didn't even kill it. It was being preserved alive in this temple. When Harry got past those curses, he might have been infected."

Bill swallowed hard. Harry was a good friend to their family. What if this Meneris had destroyed that friend?

Suddenly, it looked as if that question might be answered sooner than later. With a gasp, Harry sat straight up. When he opened his eyes, they glowed. "Crap." Bill couldn't agree with Jack more.

* * *

Harry looked out at the people in the room. But he could do nothing, say nothing. He should have listened to Fawkes' words on the tile! He knew now that Fawkes and Khafre were the same bird, and he should have heeded that warning. He hadn't thought!

Meneris chuckled in his head. _You should probably do that next time you go poking at strange curses. My previous host did very well at hiding me. Only one person in history would ever have been able to break that spell. He knew, even then, that you would be the only one to both disregard it and be able to counter it._

_So why didn't he just kill you? You held him prisoner so long in his own body!_

_Some prophesy he had made. He thought I might help you when you came around. He was a fool._ Harry could feel the sneer.

And the others saw it, leaving no doubt that Harry was not in control of his own body. Ginny, desperate to know if Harry was alright, said, "Harry?"

Harry's voice resonated in the Goa'uld way. "He is here. But he's not in control at the moment." He glanced at the hardware SG-1 was sporting. "I suppose you know what I am. Do you think your weapons are enough to stop me?"

Bill had his wand out in a moment and cried out, "Accio Harry's wand!" The wand came flying through the air to land in his hand.

But Meneris just grinned. "Fool. I was in the body of a phoenix! You think I don't know a thing or two about magic?" He put his hand out, palm flat, as though he had a ribbon device and without a sound shot a green burst of pure magic.

Bill had anticipated something and had errected a shield that used the stone of the temple itself as a support, which strengthened it. But though no one behind that shield was hurt, it snapped like a dry twig. Bill cursed. "We've got to get out of here!"

Meneris laughed. "Too late, Tau'ri." He raised his hand again.

Then the air between Meneris and those he was attacking burst into golden flames. A phoenix emerged from this fire, which was what it looked like when a phoenix Apparated. The bird screamed defiantly at Meneris.

Ginny whispered to Bill, "That's Fawkes!"

Bill looked at the fiery bird more closely. He had only seen Fawkes once, but he agreed with Ginny. This was the phoenix which had attached itself to Albus Dumbledore. What was he doing here, and without the headmaster?

Meneris glared at the bird. "Khafre. What the hell are you doing here?" Then he grinned. "Come to see your handywork? Why should you have worked so hard to make this prophesy come true?" Inside him, Harry could feel the parasite's genuine curiosity.

Fawkes touched one of the walls with a golden tallon. The temple had been so tuned to the magic of the phoenix by Fhadentep that it responded immediately to his will. Words started to write themselves on the wall in golden script, both in English and ancient Egyptian hieratic. _"The brightest light in this world shines from his soul, but he faces the greatest darkness. Together, you and Harry could destroy Voldemort. I can insure your safe passage to another host on a different world if you will agree to it."_

Daniel wasn't following the conversation at all, but he was anxious to know just what was going on with this bird. A real, honest-to-god phoenix! And it seemed to be the same individual that this Goa'uld had posessed before. Were phoenixes immortal? Was that the only reason Khafre had survived the removal of his symbiote? And why was Khafre making certain that everyone in the room could read his words?

Jack wanted to tell the bird not to be making deals with the devil, but he didn't think that would be a good idea right now. The power that had come from that twenty-year-old kid's body was nothing short of astounding, and Jack didn't mind the bird distracting the Goa'uld. He was hoping he wouldn't have to think too closely about the unreality of this whole mess for a while, as well.

Sam was itching to find out more, but she didn't forget in her enthusiasm just what was going on here, and she didn't like the fact that Harry seemed to be nothing more than a weapon to the bird.

Teal'c had heard of the legend of the sun-bird, of course, but he had never seen one. They were among the few creatures which had never been removed from Earth in the exodus. And like the others, he hoped that Khafre would be cautious. Still, if anyone would know how to deal with this Goa'uld, it would be the person who had been his host for over a thousand years.

Meneris had no intention of dealing. He wanted to keep this body, and he didn't care one whit what the bird wanted. But it might be fun to watch him fall for it if he said yes. The foolish creature was willing to believe the best of people, and had for centuries tried to give him reason to become "good". He would be easy to decieve, and then to kill.

Harry was struggling to come to the fore, using every trick of Occulmensy and Legilimensy he knew, and finally, he temporarily broke free. He shouted, "Get out! He hates you Fawkes! He's just going to--Ack!" Insensed, Meneris regained control, but it was a struggle. The fiery glow in the eyes flickered in an out, something none of SG-1 had ever seen.

Well, almost none. Teal'c said, "He is resisting Meneris's control. Only the very strongly minded can hope to succeed, but he seems to have a chance."

The group waited tensely, watching the struggle between symbiote and host with macabre fascination. It could have been as little as five minutes or as long as an hour and none could have told the difference, but the battle was waged quietly in the mind of the young man in front of them. Quietly and painfully. No sounds were made and no magic errupted, but lesions began to spread from the back of his neck where the symbiote had entered, and blood began to leak from the ears and nose. Then the light flickered once more and died, and the body fell over, unconscious.

Sam looked closely. "The symbiote wasn't expelled."

Teal'c shook his head. "It would not be. Only death or voluntary jumping can cause them to leave. If HarryPotter has won this battle, Meneris will be trapped within him, giving him all the physical enhancements of a Goa'uld without having any control over his host's body. This is very rare. It has only happened twice before, and both times, the victorious human killed themselves to destroy their symbiote."

Bill nodded, but said, "Harry won't do that. If he's won this fight, he'll keep going, at least for a while. He's got this damned guilt thing going, and he thinks it's his duty to stop the man who killed his parents. He'll use Meneris, at least until that's done." What Harry would do after that, he didn't know, but he didn't want to say that in front of his sister, knowing that she loved The-Boy-Who-Lived very much.

Jack raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. He hoped the red-head was right, but he wasn't going to get his hopes up. He knew that he'd probably off himself in the kid's shoes, just like he almost did on Abydos trying to take Ra with him. Of course, it was much better, the way things had turned out, that he hadn't, but how could he have known that at the time?

Fawkes landed on the stones next to the injured body that they were all praying still belonged to Harry. He let his tears fall onto the young man's neck, healing the wound and lesions that had been caused by the Goa'uld symbiote thrashing around under the skin. Then he began to sing, the magical notes filling all who heard them with hope. Harry stirred.

Surreptitiously, all four members of SG-1 readied their weapons. If Meneris had won, they would not be taking chances.

As Harry looked up, all were thankful to see only green looking back at them, brighter than normal only because he was tearing up. Jerking herself free from her brother's grip, Ginny then ran to Harry's side, kneeling next to him and Fawkes. "Harry? Are you all right?"

He shook his head and whispered, "He's still here, Gin. I can't get rid of him completely. He can still talk to me. He's going to drive me insane!" Tears now streaked down his face, falling freely, and he made no move to wipe them away.

"No he's not, Harry. You can beat this! I know you can."

Fawkes chirped in agreement. Words appeared on the wall. _"Of course you can. Now that you have removed his control, you can isolate him. You will not be able to remove him completely, only he can do that, but he will not be either so loud in your mind or so powerful against your consciousness. He will be reduced to an unwanted traveler, and after a while, he will likely remove himself from your body just to escape the monotony."_

Harry snorted despite himself at Meneris's reply. "He said, 'Not bloody likely, you stringy, meddling chicken.' Do you realize how much you sound like Dumbledore?"

A bird's beak couldn't smile, but a very familiar twinkle lodged itself in the bird's eyes. _"Who sounds like whom?"_ Then he became more serious. _"Now, Harry, you need to concentrate on isolating his presence in your mind, much like hiding those memories you would not want a Legilimens to see by using Occulmensy. He is many thoughts, but they are all connected, all part of one thing. Group those thoughts together, isolate them."_

Harry nodded, then closed his eyes and concentrated on doing exactly that. The others in the room could do nothing but watch with varying degrees of amazement and confusion while he did as the phoenix advised him. "Done."

_"Good. Now baracade him. Put up as many shields as you can. The first ones should point toward him to prevent his escape, and the last ones should point away from him to keep any other intruders from finding and freeing him. It won't do much good to keep him from getting out if Voldemort finds him and lets him out just to create confusion."_

Slowly Harry did exactly that, blocking Meneris with seven shields and blocking Voldemort with just as many. Not that the reptile often tried these days to break into his mind; it had proven too painful for him, just like Harry's physical touch was painful. Still, no reason to take chances.

When after several tense moments, Harry's shields were complete and anchored so that only death or Harry's will could release the creature in his mind. Finally able to focus on the here and now, the young wizard looked around himself and blushed furiously. Uh oh. The Muggles had seen this. "Um, Bill?"

Bill was not happy, and his tone was flat. "I told them a little, Harry. They have their own secrets in this mess. I think we're all going to have to have a long talk." Then he shouted, "But for now, what in Merlin's name were you thinking coming in here alone?"

Harry sighed and answered quietly, "I had hoped to do a little digging without the Muggles around so that I could do it without worrying that they would see something that they shouldn't. Do we want them remembering this, by the way?"

Not at all oblivious to Harry's attempts at misdirection, Bill decided to wait until later to dress him down like he deserved. For right now, there were more important issues at hand. "They've given us their own secrets, ones just as important as ours. It seems that they've been fighting a war with creatures like this Meneris for quite a few years on other worlds. No word yet as to how they're doing that, but then we stayed on the essentials while we were worrying about you."

Jack decided it was time for a little O'Niell flavor in this conversation. "I don't know much about magic, kid, but I know about traps, and it's really stupid to trigger one just because you want to see what it's hiding."

Harry snorted humorlessly. "I don't think I need you to tell me how stupid I've been, given the circumstances."

Clearing his throat, Daniel said, "Well, now that you seem to be safe, mind giving us a little more detail about what the hell has been going on here?"

Ginny'd had enough of this little room, however. "Not here. Let's go somewhere a little more comfortable."

Everyone agreed with the younger woman's assessment, so after first looking outside to make sure that no one would see the brilliantly plumed phoenix sitting on Harry's shoulder, the seven left the little temple for SG-1's base camp. Harry was certain that there would be plenty of problems as both sides dealt with the secrets the other was keeping, but hopefully they would soon be able to help one another.

* * *

_Man, I'm sorry this took so long. I promise I'm not dead. My husband and I just bought a house, and things seem a bit more stable, so hopefully I can get caught up on things. On the list, AAB: The Heir of Slytherin, Finding Home, Love By Accident, Oz, and A Power the Dark Lord Knows Not. All have new chapters in the works, but this one was the first one ready._


End file.
